Songs in Hard Times: Richard Thompson

I have been listening to the excellent Decemberists a lot recently, a band that has obviously studied the English Folk-Rock genre in detail, so a post on one of its major players seemed timely.
Richard Thompson has been making excellent music since the sixties, when he was a founding member of Fairport Convention. Then a sort of Jefferson Airplane for the UK but later on and many line-up changes later pioneers of English folk-rock.
He also played on Nick Drakes classic “Bryter Layter” (they were both on Island records, and both discovered/produced by Joe Boyd).
He has a huge talent for writing memorable songs, backed with astounding note bending acoustic and electric guitar playing. In Autumn 2003, Rolling Stone rated Richard Thompson No. 19 of the World’s 100 Greatest Guitarists.
His excellent website Beesweb has many mp3s available for download, mostly unavailable on cd.
One of his most interesting recent projects has been “100 years of Popular Music” A cd a tour and soon a DVD!